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Libya, International Criminal Court - Security Council VTC Briefing
The failure by States to execute arrest warrants for Libyan fugitives — including the son of former leader Muammar al-Qadhafi — is blocking efforts to ensure justice for the victims of serious crimes perpetrated during a decade of conflict and strife, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told the Security Council today, as she threw a harsh spotlight on ongoing human rights violations in the North African nation’s teeming prisons.
Fatou Bensouda said that according to credible reports which have yet to be officially corroborated, two of the fugitives — Mahmoud Mustafa al-Werfalli and Al‑Tuhamy Mohamed Khaled — are reported to have died and will never face justice before the Court. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, meanwhile, is thought to be still at large in Libya, where the Government of National Unity “must take all possible action to secure his arrest and surrender”, she told the Council, meeting via videoconference.
“Justice for victims and affected communities cannot be effectively achieved without our collective efforts towards the timely arrest and surrender of those against whom warrants of arrest have been issued by the Court,” she said. “There has been no tangible progress in securing the execution of any of these warrants. This is an obligation that falls mainly on States.”
Mr. al-Werfalli, suspected of executing 43 civilians when he was commander of Al-Saiqa Brigagde, was reportedly killed in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on 24 March, while Mr. Khaled, accused of torture among other serious crimes, is said to have died in Cairo, she said. Mr. Gaddafi — “a wilful fugitive from justice” — is wanted by the Court for crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Libya in 2011, the year his father’s rule came to a violent end.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” said Ms. Bensouda, briefing the Council for the last time before her mandate ends on 15 June. “[International Criminal Court] warrants of arrest must be executed in a timely fashion.”
Updating the 15-member organ on the Court’s work in Libya, she said that, despite serious financial constraints and logistical challenges thrown up by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Libyan dossier remains a priority for her Office, which is committed to working with the Government of National Unity in Tripoli to ensure accountability for serious crimes that fall under the Court’s jurisdiction. On recent visits to Libya, members of her team have not only interviewed witnesses and received essential documents, but also inspected crime scenes in Tarhouna, south-east of Tripoli, where more than 100 bodies were recovered from mass graves. They also met survivors and relatives of young men killed and wounded in an air strike on the Al-Hadba Military College in Tripoli in January 2020, in addition to displaced persons from Benghazi.
She added that her Office continues to monitor developments in Libya as it receives information about crimes ranging from disappearances and arbitrary detention to murder, torture and sexual and gender-based violence. In particular, it has received information regarding the Mitiga Prison in Tripoli, controlled by the Special Deterrence Force, and the Gernada and Al-Kuweifiya detention facilities in eastern Libya, run by the Libyan Arab Armed Forces, formerly known as the Libyan National Army. “The scale of these alleged crimes is huge,” she said, with the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) reporting that more than 8,850 people are being arbitrarily detained in Judicial Police custody in 28 prisons and another 10,000 — including women and children — in detention facilities run by militias and armed groups.
“I urge all parties to the conflict in Libya to immediately put an end to the use of detention facilities to mistreat and commit crimes against civilians and persons hors de combat”, in violation of international law and the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court, she said. She also urged the Government of National Unity to investigate allegations of arbitrary detention, torture, confiscation of property, and rape and other forms of sexual violence. In addition, she warned that crimes committed by mercenaries and foreign fighters on Libyan soil may fall under the Court’s jurisdiction, regardless of the nationalities of those involved, and called for intensified efforts to address impunity for serious crimes committed against migrants in Libya.
In the ensuing discussion, several Council members echoed the Prosecutor’s call for concerned States to execute the Court’s arrest warrants. They called for full implementation of the ceasefire agreed by Libyan parties in Geneva on 23 October 2020, including the departure of foreign fighters and mercenaries. They welcomed progress towards elections scheduled for December, warning, however, that instability remains a threat. Many speakers applauded the recent decision by the United States, which is not a party to the Rome Statute, to lift sanctions imposed on Court officials, including the Prosecutor.
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